Internet Safety: Trivia game helps dogs and cats

Saturday

Sep 27, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2008 at 1:34 PM

One person truly can make a difference! A young Oregon girl with a great big heart began donating to the Humane Society of Central Oregon when she was just seven years old. A few years later, animal lover Mimi Ausland had a great big idea.

Jace Shoemake-Galloway

One person truly can make a difference! A young Oregon girl with a great big heart began donating to the Humane Society of Central Oregon when she was just seven years old. A few years later, animal lover Mimi Ausland had a great big idea.

Mimi, along with her parents, had been playing the popular online word game, Free Rice, which donates rice to feed the hungry. Mimi wondered if a similar thing could be done with animals instead of humans. With permission and help from her parents, Mimi spent time developing and researching her idea. Once everything was in place, she found sponsors to help cover the costs of running such an endeavor. The good folks at ZooToo agreed to donate the pet food and numerous sponsors are covering other costs. Her supportive parents were instrumental in designing Mimi's websites.

On April 1st, 2008, FreeKibble was launched and was an instant hit. Over 200 pounds of dog food was donated that very first month. In June, the donations grew. Mimi personally delivered over 500 pounds of dog food to the Humane Society of Central Oregon! To date, over 30 million pieces of dog kibble have been donated since the April launch by playing a simple online game. But why stop there? Why not expand the program to include cats? Mimi's second website, Free KibbleKat, has had over 18 million pieces of kitty food donated since the website launched in June 2008.

Mimi's project is expanding. Seven additional animal shelters in the United States are now included in Mimi's venture. How it Works:

-With the simple click of a mouse, pieces of dog and cat food will be donated to the Humane Society. Anyone can play this simple and free trivia-type game. This also would make a great school project for children!
-Users visit the website and will see the trivia question called Bow Wow Trivia for canines and Meow Trivia for felines.
-There is only one question per day.
-As long as a player selects an answer, 10 pieces of food are donated to help feed dogs and cats in animal shelters. It does not matter if the answer is right or wrong.
-No registration is required.

As animal shelters are inundated with abandoned and neglected pets, one person's vision is making a huge difference and impact on the lives of sheltered dogs and cats.

In an email interview, Mimi wrote, "I think it is awesome that FreeKibble.com is doing so well and I hope that people keep on playing and spreading the word so we can feed lots of dogs and cats! There are so many homeless animals out there and they ALL need our help!" Mimi said that currently her endeavor is feeding only cats and dogs, but with help from everyone, she hopes to feed other types of animals. To help spread the word, free banners are available for webmasters and bloggers.

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